A new story collection fromJim Shepard is one of thetreats of my reading life. Hisnew book, You Think That’sBad, is as original and diverseas the previous three, andreminds me most of hisbrilliant second collection,Love and Hydrogen. What makes Shepard soremarkable is his ability to inhabit wildlydifferent worlds. If a theme runs throughYou Think That’s Bad, it is isolation, but thatskirts around the edges of Shepard’s achievement.His range is limitless – he can anddoes take you anywhere.

There is a story about two brothers and anemotionally warped love triangle, the maincharacter stuck on the Kokoda track asthe Japanese advance invisibly through thesuffocating tropical jungle. There is anotherabout the special-effects creator of Godzilla,one about the adventurer Freya Stark, and adisturbingly thrilling tale about a serial killerpreying on children in fifteenth-centuryFrance. Shepard moves through time andlocation with seamless, effortless grace, andappears able to write about anything he takesto be interesting. His research, whether it behistorical, bibliographical, or a speculativeleap into the future, never comes across asinformation. It is as if he absorbs lives andworlds, and mulls them over before givingthem back to us in sharper, purer tones.

Shepard is not read widely in Australia, andthis is a mystery to me. His novels are masterfultoo, and Project X, a thin slip of geniusabout two misfit high-school boys, is one ofmy all-time favourite books. He is a masterof the interior and of the landscape, and isa prose stylist of extreme elegance. If youhaven’t heard of him, look him up; You ThinkThat’s Bad is as good a place to start as any.

Robbie Egan is manager of Readings Carlton